Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

[lostsole31]

Once the will is read, Councilman Vashian looks to Kendra, who thanks him and dismisses him. Putting on a brave face, Kendra thanks the PCs again for coming, and informs them that she’ll need at least a few weeks to decide if she wants to sell her family home or remain here in Ravengro—in the meantime, as stipulated by the will, she asks the PCs to remain as well. She offers rooms in her spacious house for the PCs, promising them free room and board for the month the will requests them to remain in town, and then excuses herself to go fetch the chest mentioned in the will.

The chest itself is a relatively small object of oak and iron. Kendra, nervous about the contents, offers the key to the PCs to give them the honor of opening the chest. Lord Proculus (whose second name Clodius has given way to a nickname "Clod," which surprsingly, he does not stop you from using). The key fits the lock perfectly, and within are several old tomes and one relatively new one. The newest tome sits on the top and bears the phrase “Read me now!” scratched into the leather cover. This book is Petros Lorrimor’s journal and is detailed in the next section. The other tomes comprise the books of dangerous lore mentioned in his will—three of these have notes tucked into them indicating that they should be delivered to one Montagnie Crowl, a professor of antiquities at Lepidstadt University. The fourth, Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye, has a note indicating it should be delivered to Embreth Daramid, a judge at the Lepidstadt Courthouse (although the note asks for this delivery in particular to be handled discreetly, and includes the address of Embreth’s home so that the PCs can deliver it there). These books are summarized below.

Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye: The rich purple cover contains a brass scarab set with a single eye in its center. The book’s covers are rimmed in polished steel and clasped with a small but intricate lock, the keyhole of which appears to be for a key with a strange, triangular shaft. The key is nowhere to be found, and nobody claims any ability to handle unknown locks. Regardless, futzing with a locked book that should be given to someone else and for which each person will be handsomely rewarded is unwise.

On Verified Madness: This jet-black book is a treatise on aberrations and other entities found on Golarion that possess remote ties to the Dark Tapestry, the name given to the dark places between the stars in the night sky.

Serving Your Hunger: This text is a copy of one of several unholy books sacred to the goddess Urgathoa. Lorrimor’s notations liberally sprinkle the margins.

The Umbral Leaves: This lexicon is a translation into Common of the unholy book of Zon-Kuthon.